Footrests are commonly located in the driver's footwell of a motor vehicle to enable the driver to place his or her left foot on the footrest when there is no need for any clutch operations. Particularly in the case of narrow vehicles, however, there is often insufficient space between the front wheels to accommodate and arrange footrests and pedals for the clutch, brake and accelerator in an optimum manner. For this reason, the entire arrangement comprising the pedals and footrests is typically arranged offset slightly inward, that is to say to the right in the case of left-hand drive vehicles, for example. However, this often leads to a less comfortable position of the left foot of a driver, especially if he or she wishes to place this foot on the footrest.
In order to provide a comfortable sitting and foot position, particularly for the driver of a narrow vehicle, there is already a known practice of turning the entire driver's seat in an advantageous manner. GB 2 508 607 A, for example, discloses a relatively narrow and short passenger vehicle which is intended to allow several such vehicles to be parked in a single parking space without obstructing passing traffic and/or compromising seating comfort for the occupants. In this case, use is made of a seating arrangement in which a front seat and a rear seat are arranged offset relative to one another in a longitudinal direction. Here, the longitudinal center line of the front seat is arranged at a different angle to the central longitudinal axis of the vehicle than the longitudinal center line of the rear seat. In particular, provision is made for the entire front seat to be turned slightly inward in relation to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. This inward rotation of the driver's seat has the effect that the foot of the driver is at a greater distance from the adjacent outer wall of the passenger compartment.
In the area of the footrests themselves, measures to enhance the sitting comfort of the driver have also been disclosed. DE 195 48 483 A1, for example, discloses a footrest having a tread plate that can be moved between a rest position and a use position. In the rest position, the surface of the tread plate preferably lies flush within a recess in the vehicle floor, wherein it can be pivoted upward into an oblique use position by means of pivoted levers. For this purpose, a compressed air system is used, for example. U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,785 B1 also discloses a movable footrest in the footwell of a motor vehicle, wherein the footrest is provided for passenger seats and can be moved up and down.
JP 2013-09298 A discloses a footrest for the footwell of a motor vehicle, wherein this footrest is arranged between a brake pedal and an accelerator pedal and is intended to enable the foot to change easily from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal and vice versa. In this case, the two pedals are mounted so close to the central footrest that the driver can place his or her heel on the footrest and can swing his or her toes between the two pedals.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,807,623 B2 proposes a movable footrest having a tread surface that can be moved in different directions. Here, it is possible, in particular, for the angle, depth and a rotation angle of the footrest to be adjusted.
In the light of the prior art indicated, there is still room for improvement in the design of footrests for the footwell of motor vehicles. It would be desirable to provide a motor vehicle having a footrest in the driver's footwell which allows as comfortable as possible support for the left foot of the driver.